Fig. 1. (A) Strains screening. (B) The survival rate of three isolates in MRSB broth (MRS [de MAN, ROGOSA and SHARPE] broth containing 0.3% bile salts). (C) Effect of the ratio of Lactobacillus plantarum to Bifidobacterium bifidum on cholesterol-triglyceride reduction. (D) Effect of different polysaccharides on insulin resistance. (E) Effect of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge polysaccharide (M) dose on the insulin sensitivity index (ISI). The changes in (F) body weight and (G) food intake for 6 weeks. Food intake was estimated using the following formulas: Food intake=(initial weight of food provided–the final weight of food recovered [g]). MRSB was MRS broth supplemented with 0.3% bile salts after 3 hours at 37℃. The Δlag phase was calculated as the time needed to increase by 0.5 absorbance units at 620 nm in MRSB minus the time requirement in MRS broth according to Ding et al. [37]. C×T=cholesterol reduction rate (%)×triglyceride reduction rate (%). The ISI was calculated according to the following formulas: ISI=Ln [1/(FBG×FINS)], where FBG was the level of fasting blood glucose (mmol/L) and FINS was the level of fasting insulin (mU/L). All measurements were taken in triplicate, and experiments were repeated three times to evaluate the standard deviation. LB, Lactobacillus plantarum X (LpX)-Bifidobacterium bifidum V (BbV); LBM, LpX-BbV+Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge polysaccharide; L. barbarum, Lycium barbarum; P. linteus, Phellinus linteus; M. charantia L., Momordicacharantia L.; C. militaris, Cordyceps militaris; A. membranaceus, Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge; S. miltiorrhiza, S. miltiorrhiza Bunge. ^aP<0.05, ^bP<0.01 indicates statistically significant differences compared with the high-fat diet (HFD) group (control), ^cP<0.01 indicates statistically significant differences compared with the normal diet (ND) group (control).